Sunday’s debacle just highlighted what we already know: If games were 6 innings long the A’s would be World Series bound, but oh that last third of the game...
Bob Melvin has struggled mightily to squeeze a “right combination” out of a bevy of relievers whose only consistency is their inconsistency. Cross your fingers and throw Lou Trivino, Blake Treinen, Jake Diekman, or Joakim Soria out there and you never know what you will get — throw 2 or 3 of them on a given day and your odds are not good.
However, there is an avenue to keeping the right relievers on the mound in high leverage without overusing Liam Hendriks, Yusmeiro Petit, or anyone else.